Mobile communication devices are ubiquitous in societies around the world. In “developed” countries, the pace and demands of a modern economy require users to have one or more cell phones and web-enabled devices, such as pad computers, tablet computers, notebook computers, and laptop computers. In lesser developed countries, the wireless nature allows cell phones to be used in a towns and villages where wired communications do not exist, and their low power nature allows them to be charged using inexpensive solar panels in areas where an electric power grid is non-existent or unreliable. To say the least, mobile communications devices have brought information and communications to every corner of the world.
It is well known on these devices that the user may select many parameters for notifications by the device. Such devices usually have a speaker for audio speech replication which can also be used as a notification device through which “ringtones” are played, and they also often have a vibration or rumble device to allow them to provide tactile notification to a user. Further, a bright light emitting diode (LED) may be provided to flash in patterns, or to illuminate continuously for certain notifications to the user. And, a screen may have parameters that function as user notifications, as well.
For example, a user may select one ringtone for incoming calls from devices in the address book (e.g. “known” callers), another ringtone for incoming calls from unknown callers (e.g. not in the address book), and yet other ringtones for other types of notifications, such as receipt of new short message service (SMS) text messages, updates from social networks (e.g. Twitter™, FaceBook™, MySpace™, Spoke™, LinkedIn™, Google+™, etc.). Additionally, a user can often on these devices combine vibration or rumble characteristics with these notifications (rumble on all received calls and rumble when in silent mode, etc.), as well as screen characteristics (e.g. turn off screen when not in use for X minutes, but turn on screen when incoming call or message is received).
These user notification controls, however, are generally made by the user directly on the device, and are under little or no control of the network service provider. The control exerted by the network service provider is usually limited to controlling the availability of downloadable and pre-loaded ringtones.